New York City has had a homelessness crisis for decades, but you wouldn’t know it. Despite the New York Post bravely bearing witness every time a homeless guy pees in public, you can’t see the scale of the problem from walking around the city. Hear me out: yes, there are visibly homeless people on the street, many of whom are lovely and some of whom are unpleasant because of mental illness or just assholes (or understandably having a bad day! How would your day be going right now if you were homeless?). According to Coalition for the Homeless, 87,900 people slept in New York shelters this year, including 16,000 families.
How we treat and react to migration is a challenge that is only going to dramatically increase in coming years. Either we find ways to take them in and make them part of our society, or we build walls scapegoat and persecute/exploit them. It's not even all foreigners. Even internal migration is going to be commonplace with climate change and extreme weather events, and we have so far completely failed to address our domestic homeless problem. It's clear what Eric Adams's strategy is, and that strategy only leads to more authoritarianism, policing and misery for average folks. And fewer libraries, apparently...
How we treat and react to migration is a challenge that is only going to dramatically increase in coming years. Either we find ways to take them in and make them part of our society, or we build walls scapegoat and persecute/exploit them. It's not even all foreigners. Even internal migration is going to be commonplace with climate change and extreme weather events, and we have so far completely failed to address our domestic homeless problem. It's clear what Eric Adams's strategy is, and that strategy only leads to more authoritarianism, policing and misery for average folks. And fewer libraries, apparently...